Wake up: the American Dream is over

Thursday June 8, 2006
The Observer

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...in this land of black and white, we should not be too surprised to find some of the biggest gaps between rich and poor in the world. Such a yawning chasm is just the American Way, it would seem. Besides, the American Dream offers a way out to everyone. All someone has to do is work hard and climb the ladder towards the top. No class system or government stands in the way.

Sadly, this old argument is no longer true. Over the past few decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the American economy. The gap between rich and poor has widened and widened. As it does so, the ability to cross that gap gets smaller and smaller. This is far from business as usual but there seems little chance of it stopping, not least because it appears to be government policy.

Over the past 25 years the median US family income has gone up 18 percent. For the top one percent, however, it has gone up 200 percent. A quarter of a century ago the top fifth of Americans had an average income 6.7 times that of the bottom fifth. Now it is 9.8 times.

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And still the American government is set on tax breaks for the rich. Bush's first-term tax cuts notoriously benefited the upper strata of American taxpayers. So much so that even Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world who benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, has said the tax cuts 'scream of injustice'. As head of a hugely successful investment firm, it is hard to paint Buffet as a lefty liberal who hates Wall Street (though, bizarrely, some conservatives do try).

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,1792399,00.html

the US has continually taken steps backwards in every avenue that makes this country great....

We had the longest average lifespan in the world.

We are now number 23 - right by Costa Rica

Same for infant mortality

Same for any other objective measure of quality of life

When all of America finally gets it....it will be to late...it will take years to recover....

and are shocked at how poor people are, maybe someone will figure out what happened

I do not think we have lost hold of the position of #1 consumer of energy and other resources yet.

True, our continued high consumption is financed by continually increasing debt which cannot continue forever, but some economists would continue to tell us that out consumption of resources is proof that we are rich--even well off.

I questioned these text book assumptions strongly when I last taught economics.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1384321&mesg_id=1384321


Note that the US' upward mobility ranks below most other European countries. The old argument that you can get ahead in America is no longer true.

Upward mobility depends on a welfare state. We now have a poverty state.